Blossom Festival's Diamond Jubilee: Marching into the Future

Mike Fry, Cañon City Music and Blossom Festival Committee.

Posted:
04/22/2013 08:50:25 PM MDT

A nniversaries are fun times to look back and see how things used to be. For the Blossom Festival's Diamond Jubilee, we are celebrating the memories and excitement and fun of 75 years of Cañon City events and history. But we are very, very proud that this year's parade also pushes our community squarely into the future, led by our special Parade Grand Marshal, Clifford the Big Red Dog.

So, why is a big red dog leading our festivities? Granted that Clifford is a very well-known dog (with over 75 books, several TV series, video games and stuffed toys and a movie deal in the works), but it isn't just his media fame that we are borrowing. Clifford the Big Red Dog is the unofficial but best-known mascot for children's literacy and reading programs across the country, and this year, he is helping us -- and we are helping him, too!

One of the early victims of budget-cutting efforts in Washington, D.C. was federal funding for the Reading Is Fundamental (RIF) program. Established in 1966, RIF is the largest children's literacy nonprofit in the United States, providing over 15 million new, free books to more than 4 million school-age children. For most of its existence, the program was funded in part by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education. The grant came to an end in 2011 -- and the local RIF program was in danger of ending then, too.

Advertisement

The Board of Directors of the Blossom Festival realized that our anniversary is a time to look ahead to the next 75 years, and it will be the children that lead us there. There is no more important way to invest in the future than helping children learn to read, equipping them with the knowledge and skills they'll need to meet the curves and hoops they'll find down the road. The Music and Blossom Festival organization has restored the funding for the local RIF program; a major portion of the proceeds of the festival will be used to underwrite the RIF reading program this year, and in years to come.

We're proud of our kids, and proud of our community. We look forward to working with our local schools and school district on this project and others in the future.

So as you watch our Grand Marshal lead the parade (we guarantee he will pretty hard to miss -- accompanied by dozens of excited boys and girls), or as you enjoy an thrilling trip to the carnival or buy your favorite food or drink at one of the many concerts over Blossom festival week, please accept our thanks for taking part in the fun and doing what communities do best: Helping us all help each other as we march into the future.

Mike Fry is the President of the Cañon City Music and Blossom Festival Committee.

Article Comments

We reserve the right to remove any comment that violates our ground rules, is spammy, NSFW, defamatory, rude, reckless to the community, etc.

We expect everyone to be respectful of other commenters. It's fine to have differences of opinion, but there's no need to act like a jerk.

Use your own words (don't copy and paste from elsewhere), be honest and don't pretend to be someone (or something) you're not.

Our commenting section is self-policing, so if you see a comment that violates our ground rules, flag it (mouse over to the far right of the commenter's name until you see the flag symbol and click that), then we'll review it.